Sunday, April 6, 2008

I think we must be adjusting somewhat to conditions here. It seems like the weekend has produced nothing really out of the ordinary. We did go to a baptism on Saturday afternoon. A young 8 year old boy was baptized and also Annika, an adult who is a student at a University here. Annika is from the Congo. The elders tell us that he lives in a very poor part of town but is very intelligent and has studied the gospel a lot.

Before the baptism, we were at the Southams and charged with the responsibility of bringing a basket of towels and clothing from their apartment where Sister Southam had washed them over to the Chapel. When we pulled up and went to get them out of the back of our pickup to carry them in a young boy came running over and told us to back away. Then he had a friend help him hoist it up on top of his head and away he went into the chapel carrying the basket. Carrying things on your head is the approved way here. You would not believe what they can carry. I have seen women with a large tray completely filled with water and other drinks of all kinds that they are selling. That kind of merchandise is heavy and they carry it like it is nothing just walking around with their hands free. I will try to get some pictures but you have to be a little careful how you just snap pictures of people without their permission. Yesterday we were with the Elders walking to a meeting when a woman with the cutest little girl in a white dress walked by. The little girl wanted to shake hands with us. I did get a picture of that which I will try to send. You can almost always pay someone a few hundred francs to take their picture. I will probably do that as we get braver, but I don’t want them to think the missionaries are just tourists here either.

Church was fun again today. It is impressive how these people dress up and the singing would put any ward in the US to shame. It is just a wonderful friendly atmosphere. We are really looking forward to getting better acquainted with the members. I guess it was general conference there today but we have that here in 3 weeks after the CD’s of the conference arrive. After Church we helped teach a lesson to Mary, a Nigerian investigator being taught in English and then invited a couple of elders over to our place for dinner. They seem to enjoy Charlotte’s cooking.

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